


Only Us

by Beckers522



Series: Ineffable Husbands Playlist [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Based on a Dear Evan Hansen Song, Comforting Aziraphale (Good Omens), First Kiss, Fluff, Insecure Crowley (Good Omens), Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 17:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20697086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckers522/pseuds/Beckers522
Summary: One night within the walls of an old bookshop in Soho, a demon and an angel sit together in silence. The Apocalypse has been averted, the Arrangement is no more, and the demon desperately tries to list all the reasons his angel might want him to stay.Inspired by the song "Only Us" from Dear Evan Hansen.





	Only Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when I can't sleep and start listening to songs on repeat.

_ I don’t need you to sell me on reasons to want you _

_ I don’t need you to search for the proof that I should _

_ You don’t have to convince me _

_ You don’t have to be scared you’re not enough _

_ ‘Cause what we’ve got going is good. _

Aziraphale sat in his faded armchair, a worn copy of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ tucked between his perfectly manicured fingers. Evening had faded into night time long ago and if asked for the day of the week, the angel would assuredly respond that he hadn't the faintest idea due to the fact he was ‘most certainly retired and hadn’t a need for such things anymore’.

The bookshop was set at a comfortable temperature - cool enough that he could sit around in his trousers and dress shirt and vest and tartan bowtie without overheating, but at the same time being warm enough to keep them sheltered from the cool winter’s night.

Yes, at least he had the good sense to know what season it was. How else would he know when to put on his favorite scarf?

“I’m not a bad dinner date, ya know. Always willing to try something new,” the demon mumbled from his position sprawled out on Aziraphale’s couch. The angel made no comment in return, but allowed his blue eyes to drift upward over the page. Crowley was lying with his head on the pillow closest to Aziraphale, golden eyes facing the opposite wall. Even if he had been turned around, the angel doubted he would have been able to see those snake-like orbs his friend kept hidden far too often. They were currently tucked behind a pair of familiar sunglasses.

_ Friend. _ The corners of Aziraphale’s mouth twitched upward at the thought. They were friends now. The truth was, they had been friends for a long time, but now - _ now _ \- they didn’t have to hide in the shadows any longer. With the Apocalypse come and gone, the angel and demon were truly free to just _ be _.

“And I’ve go’ a car,” Crowley slurred, his container of red wine sloshing around in the glass balanced between his slender fingertips. It was a wonder the crimson liquid didn’t go spilling out of the edges. “I can drive usssss placessss.”

He was hissing, which meant the demon was several steps past tipsy and well on his way to becoming properly tossed. 

“Not that we need ta be driv’n placessss,” Crowley huffed, moving his gaze to the ceiling before downing the entire contents of his glass in one go. “Could jus’ poof ourselvessss ev’rywhere.”

Aziraphale smiled over the top of his book. “Where would be the fun in that? I quite enjoy rides in the Bentley with you, dear boy. Particularly the _ slower _, leisurely ones.”

He emphasized that word in particular, a certain fondness seeping into his voice despite the images of nerve wracking, high-speed escapades through the densely populated streets of London. Riding around with Crowley could be intense, at times, but there was a certain exhilaration to it that the angel never felt anywhere else. Despite his constant protests, he knew Crowley would never put him in danger. He had always been perfectly safe.

“Right.” The demon paused for a moment, shielded eyes drifting over to the glass in his hand, watching as it refilled itself on command. “_ And _ I gave the world Sssshakespeare, though that bit was your idea. I still did it, though. Got them to all come to see ‘Hamlet’, didn’t I?”

The angel beamed, remembering that wonderful night all those years ago. They had stood in the audience together, blending in with the crowd, hidden in the corner of the room away from prying eyes as they watched the show side by side. Hamlet had been a huge hit, and the success that followed afterward had changed the course of the world, forever.

“You did a marvelous job, my dear,” Aziraphale praised, still holding his book open, though it was sitting lower on his lap now than it had been a few minutes ago. “A wonderful show, indeed.”

Crowley huffed. “I still prefer the funny ones,” he grumbled before taking another swig of his wine. Silence fell between the pair and after taking one more look at the creature relaxing beside him, the angel returned to his book.

“And I - well, I - _ Bless it!” _

Aziraphale put the book down immediately, not even bothering to mark his place. He could find it again later, after he’d addressed the issue that was now so glaringly obvious. Something was wrong. The angel wondered how he had missed it before.

Crowley was upset.

He didn’t know what thought was hovering around the demon’s mind, but in that instant, Aziraphale knew that his friend had been trying to tell him something and couldn’t quite find the words. 

“My dear,” Aziraphale began, leaning forward in his seat so that he was practically falling out of it. “Whatever is the matter? You seem rather worked up over something.”

The demon’s jaw clenched, but he did not move to sit up. “Couldn’t even bloody well come up with more than three,” he was muttering to himself, wine glass suddenly gone from his hands as he raised both hands to his face, rubbing at the space behind his sunglasses. 

Three? Three what? Whatever was Crowley talking about? Aziraphale had the sense that it was something important. Usually, by now, if his friend wanted to properly discuss something, he’d sober up and get his thoughts straight. The lack of alcohol in the bottle sitting on the table behind the demon’s head indicated Crowley was holding onto his drunkenness on purpose.

This was more serious than the angel had originally thought.

_ Think. _Aziraphale had heard Crowley when he’d spoken before, but he hadn’t really been paying attention as well as maybe he should have. What had the demon mentioned? The Bentley. Hamlet. Dinner. What was this all about?

“I’m afraid I don’t quite know what you are getting at, my dear,” Aziraphale murmured softly, afraid if he spoke too loud he would upset the demon more. “Is there something the matter?”

Crowley shifted into a sitting position, empty wine glass placed carefully on the table beside the bottle, golden eyes obscured behind thick black lenses. Over the years, Aziraphale had gotten quite good at reading the facial expressions around those glasses. In an instant, he realized he’d said the wrong thing.

“‘Course not, angel.” The name still spilled out of Crowley’s mouth with such tenderness that it made Aziraphale’s heart twinge with a mixture of sorrow and delight. “It’s getting late. I should get going.”

He shifted and the angel found himself rising to his feet without making the conscious decision to do so. 

“Don’t go.”

The words left his lips before they had even fully formed in his mind. Aziraphale felt his stomach clench at the thought of Crowley walking out that door. The demon had come and gone frequently in the past. They had gone decades without seeing one another and both parties had been none the worse for it.

Things were different now. They had defied Heaven and Hell together - thwarted the apocalypse - joined their own side. Things were different, they _ had _to be. 

Crowley couldn’t _ leave _. Aziraphale didn’t want him to go. The angel wanted him to stay.

He paused, fiery red hair seeming to glow in the candlelight. The demon did not turn around to look at his companion. His words were soft as he spoke, but they cut through the air to Aziraphale’s heart all the same.

“Why?” The word was a single breath on the non-existent breeze. A whispered prayer in the space between them. “Why do you want me to stay?”

Aziraphale closed the space between them in an instant. Looking back, he had no way of knowing if a miracle had been involved or if his legs had carried him to his friend’s side all on their own. Without a second thought, the angel reached out and took the demon’s hand in his, memories of a recent bus ride flickering through his mind. They rarely touched like this. In all the centuries they’d known each other, Aziraphale could count the number of times on a single hand.

“Crowley, my dear,” he squeezed the demon’s hand gently, surprised at how cool it felt against his skin. Silently, he sent up a prayer, hoping against hope that what he was about to say wasn’t about to blow up in his face. “You don’t have to - to come up with a list of reasons I should keep you around. Just the simple fact that you are my friend should be reason enough.”

He offered Crowley a gentle smile, a tiny bit of relief creeping into his chest as the demon turned to face him. “I like you for just you. The car and the dinners and the favors are just an extra treat, but I would still want you to stay, even without any of that.”

_ I don't need more reminders of all that's been broken _

_ I don't need you to fix what I'd rather forget _

_ Clear the slate and start over _

_ Try to quiet the noises in your head _

_ We can't compete with all that _

There was no way for Aziraphale to possibly know Crowley was crying, except for the way his chin trembled ever so slightly. Except for the way the demon’s hand gripped his ever tighter. Except for the deep shuddering breath he took, even though he didn’t need the oxygen. 

“I’m a _ demon _, Aziraphale,” Crowley pointed out. “And you’re an angel. What could you possibly want with me?”

Aziraphale felt his throat tighten unexpectedly. He had felt this sensation occasionally over the centuries - before the flood, at the crucifiction. More recently in places around London. The duck pond in St. James Park, sitting in a vintage car parked on the streets of Soho, standing alone at a bandstand, gazing at the retreating figure of a demon clad in all black. Tears pricked at his eyes, but the angel refused to let them fall. 

He said nothing, waiting for Crowley to continue.

“Aziraphale, I’m _ fallen, _” the demon said after a moment more of silence. “Kicked out of Heaven, cast aside with all the rest who rebelled against her. I’m unforgivable, shunned from grace, evil incarnate. Stopping the apocalypse doesn’t change any of that.” He took another deep shuddering breath, gaze falling to the floor.

“Being your friend can’t fix me. It doesn’t fix any of what happened. I’ll never be -” His voice caught in his throat and his hand squeezed down even tighter. “I’ll never be good enough, Aziraphale.”

“Crowley,” Aziraphale breathed, reaching up to place his fingertips against the side of the black glasses - an ebony wall erected between them. A single drawn out hiss of breath was his only response. When the demon did not move to stop him, the angel slowly removed the barrier, gazing unwaveringly into those gorgeous amber eyes. “You aren’t just any demon. You are my _ very best _ friend. That is more than ‘good enough’. It always has been and it always will be.”

_So what if it's us?_  
  
_ What if it's us and only us_  
  
_ And what came before won't count anymore or matter?_  
  
_ Can we try that?_  
  
_ What if it's you_  
  
_ And what if it's me_  
  
_ And what if that's all that we need it to be_  
  
_ And the rest of the world falls away?_  


_What do you say?_  
  


Amber eyes gazed down at him, the black mere slivers against the golden backdrop. What could he do to make this better? Aziraphale had to make this better.

_ We’re hereditary enemies. I’m an angel, you’re a demon. We have nothing whatsoever in common, I don’t even like you. We’re on opposite sides. _

He had done this. How long - how many millennia had Aziraphale been pushing Crowley away? Falsehoods slipping from his lips so easily, slithering through the air between them and wrapping themselves around the demon’s heart. Aziraphale had been so afraid he would be caught and punished for...fraternizing with a demon. He’d been so _ afraid _ of what Heaven might do - first to him and then later on to Crowley when he realized just how much he _ cared. _

And Aziraphale cared. He cared about this brilliantly beautiful creature standing before him more than he cared about anything else in all of creation.

He had to fix this.

“You told me,” Aziraphale finally murmured, eyes never leaving Crowley’s, not for a second. “You told me we were on our own side now. What do you think that means, Crowley?”

The demon looked away, and Aziraphale let him, for now. He watched as those bony shoulders raised and lowered themselves quickly. How the angel wanted to wrap his arms around them and never let go. “I dunno,” the response was mumbled, barely loud enough to be heard by anything other than a celestial being. “You and me being free from them, I suppose.

“It means,” Aziraphale pressed, boldly raising his free hand up to the base of Crowley’s chin, directing it back up so he could gaze into those beautiful eyes again. “It means that it’s you and me now. What happened before doesn’t matter. From now on, it’s you and me and _ nothing else _matters so long as we’re together.”

“Can we try that?”

_ I never thought there’d be someone like you who would want me _

_ So I give you ten thousand reasons to not let me go _

_ But if you really see me _

_ If you like me for me and nothing else _

_ Well, that’s all that I’ve wanted _

_ For longer than you could possibly know _

The demon’s eyes widened even further. He was trembling now, knuckles even whiter than his already pale skin. Aziraphale felt none of the pain. His heart was thrumming much too quickly to focus on anything else.

“Aziraphale - “ the demon croaked. What the angel wouldn’t give to know what he was feeling in this moment. Human emotions were easy. They practically carried warning labels around with them. But demons? Even after 6000 years, Aziraphale had not gotten a handle on reading Crowley’s emotions. It was ineffable.

“Aziraphale, do you know what you’re saying?” _ What are you saying? _

The unspoken question hung in the air around them, but the angel heard it as loud as a ringing church bell on Sunday morning. He smiled sweetly, gently, brushing his thumb across the demon’s cheek as a single tear escaped from the corner of his amber eyes.

“I love you, Crowley. So very much.”

Why had those words been so terrifying to say up until this point? Aziraphale had known for decades that he loved the demon, in more than the way an angel should. More than the love between friends, even. He was in love with Crowley. The beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, considerate, wiley serpent that he was.

The expression on Crowley’s face changed in an instant. It crumpled as an overwhelming mixture of longing and disbelief overcame him. In an instant, Aziraphale felt arms wrapping themselves around him as the demon’s face pressed itself into his neck, a sob of relief coursing through his entire body.

“I tried so hard,” Crowley sobbed as Aziraphale clung to him, rubbing soothing circles on his back as he fought back tears of his own. Why hadn’t he confessed sooner? Why had he waited so long? Why had he made Crowley suffer so when all he wanted to do was love the demon? “I wanted to give you ten _ thousand _reasons not to let me go now that The Arrangement is over, but I couldn’t even get to ten.”

Aziraphale let out a soft ‘tutting’ noise, one of sympathy mixed with a bit of guilt. He had so much making up to do.

“My dear,” he sighed, wrapping a hand in the loose red hair beside his cheek. Crowley’s scent filled his nostrils and Aziraphale breathed it in, getting high on the feeling of warmth it sent coursing through his entire body. “I could spend the entire night reciting reason after reason why I want you around and I still wouldn’t get through them all.”

Crowley laughed and pulled back to look into Aziraphale’s eyes. “You really love me?”

The uncertainty in the demon’s words, despite the watery smile on his face, finally brought Aziraphale to tears. Oh, how he _ wished _ there were a way for Crowley to feel all the emotions the angel had kept tucked away for so long. How he wished there was a way for Crowley to _ know _just how much he was loved.

“I really do.”

Humans had many ways of showing affection, and Aziraphale had been around since the beginning. He’d picked up on a thing or two over the millennia - read enough romance novels, seen enough movies to know what happened next.

One hand still entwined in Crowley’s hair, Aziraphale moved his other one to the side of Crowley’s cheek, thumb tracing over the mark beside his ear. The shiver that resulted was enough to fill Aziraphale’s stomach with a thousand butterflies. Slowly, he pulled the demon’s face down toward him, blue eyes fluttering shut as his lips found their target.

An overwhelming sense of peace filled the angel as Crowley leaned into the kiss, hands falling to the angel’s waist to pull him ever closer. Aziraphale sighed with pleasure as waves of warmth began to course through him, radiating out from him as the love he felt for Crowley was intensified a hundredfold. This was where it had all lead to. This was where he was meant to be - where he’d always been meant to be. Here, in Crowley’s arms.

“You have no idea,” Crowley panted when they finally pulled away. Neither one of them needed to breathe, but that didn’t stop their lungs from desperately grasping at the air around them, faces flushed with rosy color. “I’ve wanted you for longer than you could possibly know, angel.”

Aziraphale beamed and surged forward for another kiss, not ready to be parted just yet.

“I’m so sorry I took so long to catch up, my dear.”  


_ So it could be us _

_ It could be us and only us _

_ And what came before won’t count anymore _

_ Or matter _

_ We can try that _

_ It’s not so impossible _

_ No one else but the two of us here _

_ You’re saying it’s possible _

_ We can just watch the whole world disappear _

_ ‘til you’re the only one I still know how to see _

“Angel,” Crowley breathed through their kisses. He had moved from Aziraphale’s lips and was currently peppering them down the soft skin of the angel’s throat, eliciting soft moans Aziraphale hadn’t known he’d been able to make until that moment. “Is this real? Tell me this isn’t a dream.”

“Is this really possible?”

Perfectly manicured fingers clutched at the fabric of Crowley’s black jacket, suddenly cursing the fact that it was so darn thick. He wanted to feel the demon’s skin against his fingertips - wanted to run his hands down the pale skin of his back and his arms, wanted to feel him close against his chest, their hearts beating in unison, side by side.

“Yes,” Aziraphale responded in earnest. “Yes, Crowley, my dear, my _ love. _ It’s just you and me.” He smiled and reached up to bring the demon’s lips to his once more. “It’s always been just you and me. The rest of the world rises and falls like the sun, fading away as night creeps in, but you - “ the angel paused to gaze up at Crowley’s eyes once more. His breath hitched in his throat as he saw the love in his heart reflecting back toward him within those bright, _ beautiful _ eyes.

“You are the only one, Crowley. The only one I see. The only one I’ve ever seen.”

_ It’s just you and me _

_ It’ll be us _

_ It’ll be us and only us _

_ And what came before won’t count anymore _

_ We can try that _

_ You and me _

_ That’s all that we need it to be _

_ And the rest of the world falls away _

_ And the rest of the world falls away _

_ The world falls away _

_ The world falls away _

Crowley smiled, bright and true and genuine. Lines creased around his mouth, eyes shining with a joy Aziraphale had never seen before. Slowly, the demons fingers fell from his angel’s waist and slid down the nearest arm to his hand. Fingers intertwined themselves as lips leaned in to steal away another kiss. Aziraphale’s heart soared. 

“I love you, angel.” The words filled the bookshop around them, resonating with every memory that lingered against the walls and upon the shelves and within the pages of each and every book. Countless lifetimes had passed between the two entities embracing each other in the candlelight, and none of it mattered anymore. All the hurt, the pain, the uncertainty and longing - it was all gone now. Vanishing into thin air like a puff of smoke.

All that remained was an angel and a demon, their arms wrapped around each other in an embrace that looked like it may never end. They had found where they belonged, with each other, and each other was all they needed. It was all they would ever need.  


The rest of the world fell away.

_ And it’s only us _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this little one-shot. I think this is officially the shortest piece I've written for this fandom so far. If you liked it, please let me know! I absolutely adore comments <3
> 
> If you haven't already heard this version of the song, I highly recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJkwjrFbmIs


End file.
